Giving Compass' Take:

• Agricultural neighborhoods are popping up in Detroit, filling gaps such as food insecurity, nutritional, and other community development needs.

• What are the main challenges for agricultural neighborhoods to stay sustainable in urban spaces? 

• Learn more about the benefits of urban farms. 

A decade ago, a resurgence of urban gardens and farms sprouted a new agricultural trend around the country. And while many of them continue to thrive, in the past five years, another trend has entered the urban agricultural scene: agrihoods, short for agricultural neighborhoods.

A decade ago, a resurgence of urban gardens and farms sprouted a new agricultural trend around the country. And while many of them continue to thrive, in the past five years, another trend has entered the urban agricultural scene: agrihoods, short for agricultural neighborhoods.

Agrihoods, which number about 90 nationwide, are typically in rural and suburban areas—with some near large urban centers such as Phoenix, Colorado, and Atlanta—replacing previous generations’ desire for the lush green acres of golf communities. They’re newer communities with homes that cost $300,000 to $700,000, but can be in the millions such as those in the Walden Monterey community in the Bay Area. At Walden Monterey, luxury amenities are expected where lots start at $5 million each.

Within the city of Detroit, home to nearly 1,400 community gardens and farms, there is one officially designated agrihood, Michigan Urban Farming Initiative. The nonprofit in the North End neighborhood, just north of the recently gentrified Midtown area, calls itself America’s First Sustainable Urban Agrihood.

The Michigan initiative is a 3-acre farm focusing on food insecurity in one of Detroit’s historic communities that was once home to a thriving Black middle class. Now the median home value is under $25,000, and about 35% of the residents are homeowners.

“For us, food insecurity is the biggest issue,” says, Quan Blunt, the Michigan initiative’s farm manager. “The closest [fresh] produce store to this neighborhood is Whole Foods [4 miles away in Midtown], and you know how expensive they can be.”

Read the full article about an agricultural neighborhood by Biba Adams at YES! Magazine.